Curated Video
Della Reese: the First Black Woman to Host a Talk Show
Decades before Oprah, Della Reese was the first Black Woman to host a talk show. Born in Michigan in 1931, Della Reese began making records and performing on television variety shows in the 1950s. Reese was the first black woman to host...
Participant
The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. by Kid President
The ever-engaging Kid President hosts a video that details the life story of Martin Luther King, Jr. Kid President covers the time from when Martin Luther King, Jr. was born to the extent of his life and includes words of encouragement...
PBS
Sojourner Truth | Abolitionist and Women’s Rights Activist Video
Talk about perseverance! Introduce young historians to Sojourner Truth with a richly detailed lesson plan that includes a video overview of Truth's life, background vocabulary, as well as before and after viewing discussion questions. A...
PBS
Mary Church Terrell | Unladylike2020
Catalytic events wake people up. For Mary Church Terrell the lynching of her friend Thomas Moss lead to her involvement in the catalytic events of suffrage, anti-lynching, and desegregation. Learn more about this amazing woman and her...
Stanford University
Freedom’s Ring: King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech was the clarion call for the modern Civil Rights Movement. Using the immortal words of King, an animated screen allows pupils to hear his words delivered to the March on Washington in...
C-SPAN
Bell Ringer: Maya Angelou
Introduce Maya Angelou with a short video that provides viewers with an overview of her many accomplishments and some of her papers collected at Wake Forest Library.
National Woman's History Museum
Women's History Minute: Marian Anderson
A short video spotlights opera singer Marian Anderson's accomplishments alongside her struggles with racism and segregation.
National Woman's History Museum
Women's History Minute: Sojourner Truth
A short video introduces viewers to an abolitionist, women's rights activist, and former enslaved person, Sojourner Truth. The video showcases the importance of her "Ain't I A Woman speech."
National Woman's History Museum
Women's History Minute: Ida B. Wells
Before Rosa Parks, there was Ida B. Wells. In 1884, Wells was arrested for refusing to leave the first-class women's car on a train to Chicago. Born into slavery, raised in the south, Wells became a newspaper publisher, an advocate for...
National Woman's History Museum
Women's History Minute: Katherine Johnson
Launch a study of Katherine Johnson and her contributions to the NASA Space Program with a short video that introduces viewers to little-known information about the role she and other women played. The video also reveals the gender bias...
Biography
Martin Luther King Jr. | A Crusader For Liberation | Biography
A powerful 12-minute video biography captures famous and not so well known events in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Life events include marches he led, speeches he gave, and the brutality he faced.
WatchMojo
Martin Luther King Jr: Life and Death
A brief video biography introduces viewers to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Pictured as excerpts from his speeches, marches he organized, and causes he supported.
Kids Academy
Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Montgomery Bus Boycott for Kids | Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King
An engaging and informative video sheds light on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Kid-friendly animated figures visually portray what the narrator says. An end-review...
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
MLK: Economic Power and Nonviolent Resistance
A stirring video, accompanied by audio clips from many of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches, provides viewers with King's ideas about how civil rights activists can use economic boycotts as a powerful non-violent resistance tool.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
MLK: Nonviolence is the Most Powerful Weapon
A short video interview with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. provides young social scientists with an opportunity to hear directly from King about his commitment to non-violent organized resistance and why he believed it is the most powerful...
PBS
Reconstruction: Ida B. Wells - Pioneer of Civil Rights
When Ida B. Wells was kicked off the whites-only ladies railway car, it ignited a ferocious warrior for civil rights. Wells and others worked to preserve the hard-won freedoms of Reconstruction, which were tenuous at best during...
PBS
Reconstruction: The 15th Amendment and African American Men in Congress
To escape to freedom, Robert Smalls had to steal a Confederate ship and sail to Union lines. He continued that fight for freedom as one of the first African American representatives in Congress during the Reconstruction era. Learners...
C-SPAN
On This Day: Black Panther Party
An engaging resource provides viewers with information about the founding of the Black Panther Party and social programs like its food bank that the party created. The video clips also describe the political views of the party and their...
PBS
A Black Writer in the South | American Masters: Alice Walker
Alice Walker discusses the influence the strong women in her family and her experiences growing up on a plantation in Eatonton, Georgia had on her writing. Part of the American Masters series, the short video includes images of her...
PBS
The Color Purple
A clip from the documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth features Walker discussing her writing process and why she chose to write The Color Purple as an epistolary novel. The resource is part of PBS' American Masters...
PBS
Gabrielle Union Discusses The Color Purple
Gabrielle Union discusses the role Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, plays in her life. She stresses the importance of readers being able to find reflections of themselves in literature.
PBS
Ralph Ellison and the Black Arts Movement
The ideas of the leaders of the Black Arts Movement were in direct contrast to those of Ralph Ellison. A clip from the American Masters film Ralph Ellison: An American Journey clarifies these conflicts between Ellison and the younger...
PBS
Dr. Bledsoe: A Fictional Booker T. Washington
Many critics believe that the character of Dr. Bledsoe in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man was modeled after Booker T. Washington. After watching a clip from the film Ralph Ellison: An American Journey about the Washington Bledsoe...
PBS
Invisible Man: The Trueblood Incident
How is the reader of Ralph's Ellison's Invisible Man supposed to react to "The Trueblood Incident" of Chapter 2? A short clip from the American Master film Ralph Ellison: An American Journey offers differing critical analyses from two...